Chocomint Nightmare
by Anti-Mattering
Summary: Aoi calls Yusaku to meet for something important.


It was a bright Sunday morning that Yusaku was called out to this park near his apartment. He didn't particularly enjoy being woken up this early but assumed that it had to be for a good reason. Why else would she be calling him out like this? At the very least, it couldn't just be settled with a text message.

He was the first to arrive, taking a seat on a slightly wet bench near the edge of the park set against a fence. With an expression indicative of the fact he hadn't had any coffee before tossing on a hacker hoodie and rushing out here, he waited for his associate to show up.

Several minutes of nothing passed by, the sunlight and fresh air making him all the more uncomfortable. He tried to pass the time by watching the other people in the park but quickly decided against it considering how a man sitting by himself observing children at play might look. He briefly considered downloading a game to his phone but decided against it as it would be too much effort.

Thankfully, his wait wouldn't be much longer. Aoi Zaizen appeared shortly after that dressed in white with a bag clutched in her hand. She seemed to spot him quickly, heading over to where he sat. Despite the urgency in her message, she didn't seem to be in any great hurry now.

"Here," Aoi said as she walked up, holding open a white convenience store plastic bag in front of Yusaku. "Take one."

Reaching inside, he pulled out a wrapped soft serve ice cream cone. Upon closer inspection, he was forced to notice the flavor. "Mint chocolate," he said, brow furrowing a bit at the toothpaste-and-dirt-colored dessert.

"It's the best flavor, so I knew you wouldn't mind it," she said, taking a seat next to him on the bench and opening one up for herself.

He did mind, actually. He minded quite a bit. While Yusaku didn't have strong opinions on much of anything, he could say with certainty that he hated the flavor of mint ice cream. Artificial and disgusting, he'd never willingly put anything with that sickly green hue into his body.

Still, that distaste was trumped by his need not to make a fuss. It would be rude to just refuse it. Reluctantly, he geared up to eat it, glancing back at Aoi as she happily (as happy as she ever looked) licked through half of her own.

Gripping the plastic dome over the ice cream, he pulled up.

It didn't budge.

He pulled harder, grunting a bit.

Still nothing.

"Need help?" she asked, only spurring on his determination to open it.

With a thrust, the top came off in a sub-optimal direction, sliding the entire swirl of ice cream inside along for the ride. Having swiped it to the side rather than pulled directly upward, he could only watch in horror as the cold, creamy lump fell onto his lap with a wet splat.

He froze, the world seeming to stand still save for the awkward cawing of a crow in the distance.

"Ku ku ku." It took him a moment to register the low, grumbling noise from beside him. "Ku ku ku." It was Aoi. She'd turned her head away from him but that sound coupled with the hand placed over her mouth clearly meant she was laughing at him. Was this a setup?

"Sorry," she told him, apparently having noticed he had noticed her. She then did the unthinkable, holding out her own ice cream to him. "You can have the rest of this."

For as bad as things were going, there at least seemed to be the silver lining of not having to eat that terrible treat after it fell onto him. But that fleeting moment of hope was disappearing right before his eyes. "It's fine," he said, holding up a hand to refuse.

"Take it," she insisted. "It's good." It was not.

"It's fine, really." Take the hint already.

"My mouth is clean," she said. "I brushed my teeth before I came here. You don't have to worry about getting sick from eating after me."

Yusaku was genuinely unsure whether or not she was torturing him at this point. He offer seemed genuine enough but it was hard to certain as she kept the same neutral expression through the whole conversation. Seeing no way of escape beyond trying to run for it, he reluctantly took the cone in hand.

He focused all his hate into his gaze, staring down at the ice cream as he clutched it between his sweaty fingers. With Aoi watching him intently, there wasn't any chance he might be able to dump it over his shoulder and pretend he'd eaten it. There was really no way of getting out of this, was there?

Extending his tongue, he slowly moved the cone towards him. He could feel the cold exuding off of it as it inched nearer to his face, that horrid mint smell already wafting into his nose. Bracing with all his might, he finally tasted it.

Will of iron began to rust immediately, barely able to complete a full lick while remaining composed enough not to retch. Some might say he was being dramatic, but he'd tell them they could never understand his pain if they hadn't lived through it themselves. It was true torment the likes of which he wasn't sure he could survive.

Regardless, this seemed to satisfy Aoi. Only then did either of them realize he still had a melting ice cream swirl sitting on his pants and soaking through them. "I'll get it," she said before he could react himself, knocking the melty blob off of him with the discarded cone before wiping at him with her handkerchief.

Out of all the things he expected to do with his life after all this time, sitting in a park while a girl poked at his wet crotch definitely wasn't one of them. All but entirely dissociated from his body, he finally asked the question that had been on his mind since getting up this morning. "Why did you call me out here?"

Aoi paused, sitting back up and looking to Yusaku's face. "Oh." She seemed surprised at the question. "It just seemed like it might be nice."

"That's all?" he asked, morale dropping even further.

"Should there be more?" she asked him, somehow not phased by any of what was going on. "Hold still. It's going to stain if I don't get this. You can keep eating."

As she returned to blotting at the melted ice cream, Yusaku felt that he could say with certainty that allies were a mistake.

* * *

You'll never figure out why this exists.

I don't really think this is too good but the joke was funny enough that I put the effort into making this into an actual story instead of just an isolated scene. Not much effort, but there was effort.

This isn't really compliant with canon because, as you know, Yusaku and Aoi aren't friends and don't know anything about each other in the show. They've barely spoken to each other even by the end of season 3 and definitely wouldn't have come to hang out on a Sunday morning like this.

Instead, imagine this is in a version of VRAINS where the characters actually developed relationships with each other and became friends, kind of like what might happen in this story called Lightning Hunter this guy I know is writing that you could read if you wanted to. This would probably be at some point in between the end of the Tower of Hanoi and the start of season 2 for reference.

Draw your own conclusions as to what Aoi intended here. Maybe it was just hanging out with a friend eating ice cream together or maybe it was an awkward attempt at a weird date since she's weird and awkward herself. Either one works.

That's about all we've got for this. Thanks for reading. Share if you enjoyed. Always remember to buy better ice cream that doesn't taste awful.


End file.
